


It's Kind of Like Twelfth Night.

by madeof_it



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Genderbending
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-26
Updated: 2014-06-26
Packaged: 2018-02-06 09:06:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1852396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madeof_it/pseuds/madeof_it
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lily is disguised as a guy (because VOLDEMORT) but is back in Hogwarts for her Seventh Year.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's Kind of Like Twelfth Night.

There was no way she could pull this off. Seventh year was complicated enough for most students, but this was ridiculous. It wasn't for the first time this week that Lily Evans fumed in the center of her Gryffindor-red four-poster, her legs crossed and the curtains shut tight with Silencing spells cast on their perimeter.

She screamed. She screamed and then she sang and then she cried and if anybody could've heard her, they'd probably have thought she was crazy. After an hour of that, her eyes were dry and her voice was hoarse. It wouldn't do to have to get Poppy to brew her another Sore Throat potion, but Lily didn't care if she was being difficult.

It wasn't like she'd ASKED for this.

 _Voldemort was an idiot_. she thought, frustrated as she felt her anger rising again. Her emotions were like hot steam rising in her belly, making her ivory skin flush and filling her until she had to cough or choke.

Her temper tantrums were caused by that snakey bastard, the reptilian half-man that thought he could take over the world. With all his talk of Pure-Blooded superiority and Death Eaters controlling the world, his fascination with Muggle-born Lily Evans was unexpected.

True, she was the brightest witch of her year, and her exemplary grades and magical demonstrations had caught the eye of the Ministry. With the Minister's attentions, though, came the unwanted attentions of the Dark Lord himself, someone who wanted to use Lily's talents for his own dangerous means.

Once that had become known, the Order of the Phoenix put their efforts toward keeping her safe. Drastic times called for drastic measures. Lily's death was faked, a gruesome car accident believing to be the reason that the would-have-been-Head-Girl and star Gryffindor hadn't returned to Hogwarts. With the charred metal and unidentifiable ashes found within the car's body, there was no real proof that she _hadn't_ perished in the staged horror.

With no safer place for her, Headmaster Dumbledore decided that she'd be best kept under the Order's watchful eye within Hogwarts' thick stone walls.

And that was how she'd gotten here.

Her appearance was explained as her being a distant relative of Fabian and Gideon Prewett, two twins that were in the same year and, conveniently, the same house. Rumors were spread that the poor child had been orphaned, and that the red-headed family was charged with her care. Of course, you couldn't just drop Lily Evans into the same school as her classmates without some kind of disguise.

She was a boy. It was horrifying. Dumbledore had cast a spell on her that turned all her visible features vaguely masculine. Her hair was chopped from it's long, soft waves into a shaggy red cut that barely covered her ears but flopped into her hair. A Glamour made her chest all but disappear (although it could still be _felt_ , even if it weren't visible -- so she made extra efforts with binding them herself), and another spell lowered her voice a bit.

Unfortunately, her unexpected appearance at the school was creating enough talk among the students, and Dumbledore was unable to make further accommodations for her without seeming to favour her more than others.

And that was how she ended up in the Boys' Dormitory, sharing a small space with three other Gryffindors that would prove to be trying to all of her senses.

Dumbledore _would_ stick her with the Marauders. She'd taken the place of Remus, since he'd been moved to his own room under the guise of Prefect benefits (a sticky situation, given his whole Werewolf thing). So far, sharing a space with James Potter, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew had been ... interesting.

If Lily had ever had any curiosities about how boys lived their lives when girls weren't around, they were quelled. Violently. She was tired of the crude jokes, and the flashes of bare arse that came with their lack of modesty and pride in their own male genitalia. It seemed that her being a complete stranger didn't matter much to the trio, although that was probably more because she was a sworn Prewett. 

Fay and Gid (as she so fondly called the rambunctious twins) were the only students who knew the truth of the new arrival, and even if they'd had loose lips they couldn't have spoken of it anyway as Dumbledore himself was her Secret Keeper. A few other Order members knew as well, like Arthur Weasley, who was married to the twins' older sister. Minerva McGonagall had known, but had also asked to be Obliviated, saying she wasn't sure she could change her behaviour enough -- Lily had been (and still was) one of her favourite students, and she couldn't hide the sadness in her eyes when she'd first seen Lily in her male form.

It was hard for her to remember to respond to her new name. She was just Charlie now, the ending of the foreign name similar enough to her own that she'd catch the "-lie" part and recognize it. It was also the name of Arthur's eldest son, which caused some confusion at first. But the poor 5-year-old adjusted soon enough, demanding he be called Chuck to ease the snap of two heads as they turned towards voices calling their newly-shared name.

Fay had sat with her for hours one night as she read, repeatedly and randomly calling out her new alias until he was satisfied with how quickly she responded to it. There were still moments that would threaten to catch her, though.

To compensate, she learned to slow her reflexes a bit. It allowed her to sink into a role of a more dreamy-eyed teenaged boy, one who seemed to pay little attention to his surroundings and was often off in his own world.

She was starting to feel like she was suffocating in the confines of her bed, though. The space inside her heavy crimson curtains felt smaller and smaller, until she panicked and leapt out from behind them.

With her quick movements and tight-throated yelp, she startled the only other occupant of the room. Potter looked up from buttoning his fly, and his cheeks pinked. Lily ( _Charlie, now_ she thought soberly) was still breathing heavily from her anxious flight from her solid four-poster, and their eyes locked as she panted.

She felt a flush rise in her own face and she broke her gaze just before Potter took a hesitant step towards her, then fled the room.

She heard him some nights, nights when he'd forgotten to cast his own Silencing charms on the heavy curtains around his own bed. The first time, she'd been surprised after sneaking back into their room from a long curfew-breaking study session in the library with Remus ( _Of course he'd be the only one to take their lessons seriously, that was always true_ ). It had been late, late enough that the stars were close to fading out of the slowly dawning sky, and she'd stopped, heart beating fast in her still-bound chest, when she'd heard him murmur her name.

Her _real name_ , the one she'd been born to, not the one she went by now that she was forced to be somebody else.

In his sleep, James Potter whispered her name, spoken softly and with such volumes of grief and regret and sadness that she felt a piece of her break underneath all of her layers of clothes.

But they hadn't been anything, had they? Sure, he had teased her, and she'd flirted back in her own way (which was mostly one with her mouth set in a disapproving line but her eyes dancing), but they'd never seemed to progress beyond the verbal sparring, the slight jabs that would've hurt if they'd come from anyone but each other.

There was nothing she could do for it now, though she'd harboured her own secret hopes of him confessing his love, and sweeping her away from the mad world they found themselves in, the two of them settling into a small stone cottage in a quiet village and raising a small family together. He could stay home with the babies, and she'd Floo to the Ministry every morning for her job in the Research sector of Charms Creations. Now, that was as unlikely to happen as Voldemort throwing an apologetic party for all the trouble he'd caused.

 _Lily Evans is dead, James,_ she thought sadly, a new ache in her bones that had nothing to do with the tight bindings encasing her chest. She Vanished the tears that were trailing down her cheeks as she climbed, fully clothed, into the heavily curtained and Warded confines of the only place she was free to be herself.


End file.
